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Just finishing notifying insurance and such that I have been approved for medicare starting in October. If I thought this post some 13 years ago was rough, Seeing a medicare card with my name is a real downer. Makes me wish I was still “The Kid”

And it is time for the 2017-2018 rabbit season to start. It is hard to believe that I have been writing, more or less, for 17 years now

Which brings up another hard subject. This might be my last year writing about rabbit hunting, Beagles and my brand of nonsense. Well, at least the rabbits and beagles.

Kara (GF) and I are looking at starting a new adventure that will take us out of our comfort zone for at least 2 years. That means I will be selling off the dogs (since none of the usual gang of idiots are willing), cows, and selling Rabbit Run. The Rabbit Journal archives will still be here and I will still be writing with my usual brand of humor. Hopefully ThinWater and the rest will keep me up on the happenings of the 2018-2019 season and beyond

Penny Sue stayed home for today’s rabbit hunt. Penny Sue is technically Brag’s dog, but she doesn’t believe that at all. The standing thought is if I disappear in the woods, just follow Penny. She’ll lead you straight to me.
Here lately she has decided that her main job is to protect me from any charging homicidal rabbits by maintaining a position some 20 yards from me between the dogs that are running the rabbit. Read More

She was a goodun. The best rabbit dog in these parts. Wouldn’t run nothing but a rabbit, why everybody says so.

Enough of the bs. She was a goodun, but she did have her flaws such as refusing to come in until she was good and ready.

She ran her first rabbit by herself at the age of 12 weeks and turned into the best “water” dog around. She would have been a champion except for those short legs. She born with a nose that can smell where the rabbit is thinking about going tomorrow, yesterday and legs so short they would embarrass a basset hound. Not only was she slow a foot, she tended to announce “the rabbit stepped here four hours ago, then here, then here then here,……..” Still, she was such a pretty puppy

Widgets USA

A wholly owned subsidiary of redneckin enterprises

I’m thinking of opening a widget factory to manufacture good, honest, made in the USA widgets if the tech worker plan goes through. Since it’s easier to get government contracts if widgets are made domestically, I’ll approach some relatively poor county or city and offer to bring my widget production plant there….if they give me some incentives and tax breaks at taxpayer expense.

I know that widget makers in the USA make $20 an hour. When it’s time to hire my widget makers, I’ll trot down to the state employment office
and tell them how many widget makers I need and that I’m willing to pay them $12 an hour. Very few domestic widget makers that meet my
qualifications will be willing to work for $12 an hour (they might not now but they will ), so I contact Friendly Freddies International House
of Workers and tell him how many widget makers I need and how much I’ll pay. Freddie lines up widget makers in foreign countries, who are
trained or can be trained to make my widgets and are willing to spend up to 6 years living in the US working for $12 an hour. All the while dreaming of getting their green card or at least give birth before having to leave.

Cool huh? The Republicans business friends get their cheap labor, needed since there is a limit to productivity increases, Democrats get what
they perceive as potential new Democrat voters to lead us on to some “Progressive™” utopia and we, the Citizens, get screwed having to compete against cheap foreign labor in our own country.

Middle Boy had been wanting a sxs .410 to rabbit hunt with. I kept trying to tell him that with his advancing age which will bring on deterioating eyesight that he would be better off with a 20 ga or even a 12. But, alas, he listens to me now no better than he did at 12. Beside, he told me he plans to have my 20 ga Yildiz in fifteen years. I suppose he thinks I will have passed by my 78 birthday. I plan to stay around just to spite him. An now might even give it to Baby Boy. Anyway, Middle Boy has a acquired a Yildiz .410 sxs from Academy. Pretty much the same as my 20ga. These are light and affordable guns imported from Turkey.

Since it was just Middle Boy and myself, I provided most of the entertainment
The first rabbit I missed was just one of my usual misses. He hopped out on the road, saw me when I saw him. His reflexes were just better. Before I had time to do more than widen my eyes at the unexpected bunny, he spun into some thick bushes. A desperation shot tore the bush apart, but he had never slowed down

The next miss was worse or as Middle Boy said, the funniest thing he had saw in a long time. Let me set the stage for you

We jumped one rabbit in a long relatively narrow briar patch that was bordered on one side by a pasture and the other was a hardwood bottom that was completely bare of vegetation.
I standing on the far side of the bottom looking at Middle Boy standing in the briar patch waiting for the rabbit to cross. I had my gun under my arm as I focused the zoom and watched intently, not hardly breathing. And I waited.

Finally, Middle Boy noticed me and asked what I was doing. As I told him, he said “What moved next to you? I looked down to see the rabbit sitting next to my left foot. There I was camera in both hands, gun in the crook of shoulder as the rabbit sprinted into the bushes behind me. Trying to one hand the camera and attached tether into the vest and raise and aim the shotgun with the other hand

proved to be a impossible task

We closed out what was supposed to have been a couple of hour hunt about two in the afternoon . And “We” got two rabbits

Thank goodness for the “We” system. Charles Pearson and I got three rabbits today on a light hunt at Mr. Daves house. It’s always good to hear somebody else praise your pack of dogs. And when it’s a fellow dogman, it’s all the sweeter.

Charles had me put one of his tracking collars in my vest. Whether this was because of the fact that I got a little turned around the other day on the skunk hunt or because it gave Charles an edge on rabbit killing is open for debate. Some of you know I used to carry a compass. A compass is a great tool for keeping lost in only one direction.

We jumped the first rabbit at the edge of Mr. Dave’s driveway and he led The Rabbit Journal Pack on a long race in the woods between his house and the huge field below. To make it even better, most of the race was in areas that had sheets and pools of water. Mr. Dave took the first two shots, missing both after having to jerk his foot out of the way of the charging rabbit. Then Charles killed it.

The second rabbit came when Charles jumpshot a rabbit after a long fruitless circle that ended back at Dave’s house. That means the first two rabbits were Dave’s yard rabbits.

The third came when the dogs crossed the road onto someone else’s property. Charles killed this one. According to him the rabbit was a streaking blur through thick brush that was juking left and right, even while in the air. Rabbit hunters are worse than fishermen.